We have been soaking up the sights, sounds, and smells of Bilbao. Although it is the fifth largest city in Spain (around 940,000 residents), it feels smaller, perhaps because the encircling mountains preclude, or else hide, any surrounding suburban sprawl. And certainly it is densely populated. I've seen no single-family homes here at all, though the low height of the buildings (very few over seven floors) and the frequent traffic plazas prevent it from feeling like a labyrinth. It is an intimate city, with its river and its parks, its neighborhoods and its old city center. It is very walkable, though there is also good public transportation. Our hotel is in the very middle of town, yet the airport is only a few minutes away by car. Did I say how much I like Bilbao?
Our wanderings yesterday took us back to our favorite bakery for breakfast, downtown past a mime in a bridal dress (?), to the train station to check on the return of the rental car, then over to the old historic quarter with its Salamanca-like plaza lined with pintxo (tapas) bars, then to a Japanese restaurant, Miu, for lunch. Later in the evening we enjoyed some of those pintxos, as well as the last of the daylight. Photos can be found at https://goo.gl/photos/rdnN8gNvKyr78Kqj8
Today was our day for the Guggenheim museum where, in addition to the never-boring experience of Gehry's building and Serra's steel sculpture installation, we found an excellent exhibit of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work. (Wikipedia has a pretty good article about Basquiat at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat.) I was reminded why art museums are such good things to have around: although I vaguely was aware of Basquiat as an New York-based African-American artist, I knew very little about him, and in a little over an hour today I gained an admiration for and initial understanding of his life and work. The exhibition was very well done, and included cogent if terse explanations of the social, political, and racial contexts of Basquiat's art.
We stopped for a pintxo on our way back to the hotel, then rested until time for lunch at a Thai restaurant around the corner from yesterday's Miu. Now we are resting again (probably a bit of travel fatigue) while we contemplate how to spend our last evening in Spain. Tomorrow afternoon we will fly to Paris, stay at the invigorating hotel Citizen M (see https://www.citizenm.com/destinations/paris/paris-charles-de-gaulle-hotel), and board our flight home on Thursday morning.
I may have a few more pictures to send, so you may hear from me again before we get home. If not, or even if so, I hope these notes have been enjoyable. It has been a wonderful trip and I have enjoyed sharing it with you all.
